Scrapbook page ideas: Gardening

In the hustle and bustle of modern day life from chaotic rush hour traffic to work commitments and family engagements a lot of people now find peace, solitude and comfort in gardening whether it be a vast expanse of lush, ride-on mower lawn or a small plot in a communal garden or an allotment you can escape to from your high rised flat.

There’s a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in working the earth and knowing that as shoots sprout and blossoms bloom that your tender, green fingered, touch and attention brought these births into being.

Having recently moved into a rented house where the previous occupants weren’t even aware that the attached garden was theirs and therefore the garden in question was given over to wildlife with two foot high grass and weeds populating every available space a before and after scrapbook page seemed like a brilliant idea.

In this day and age with advances in technology making digital cameras a fairly cheap addition to every household, a great place to start is photographing the untamed state of your garden before your rescue project.  It will never look this way again so don’t miss the opportunity to document this period in your garden’s personal eco-system.  Also bear in mind the subtle changes that seasons bring and how the colours and variety of growth shift throughout the year, from summer to winter hardy flowers and the russet turn of deciduous leaves.

As you’re planning your garden it’s a good idea to think of it like a D.I.Y. home improvement and draw out an aerial view of your ground space and have control over the design.  Mark out your flowering beds and list which perennials you will plant and what colours of petals you want your seasonal flowers to adorn.  Mark out your vegetable patch or pond or where you want to put a bird bath or garden bench taking into consideration where is bathed with most sunlight, where the ground is tough or stony and what kind of soil is needed to encourage growth.

It is easy to forget what went where so sticking your plan into a scrapbook and labelling your garden purchases is a quick and easy way of keeping track. 

If you are an avid, crafty, scrapbooker as well as an enthusiastic gardener such a wonderful page topic is full of colourful, creative potential.  Here are a few ideas to make your gardening scrapbook paper come to life:

Make your own recycled paper:

What you will need:

Waste paper (this can be old newspaper, or to keep the gardening theme pure how about an old gardening magazine but even normal white printer paper is fine.  Add some old Christmas cards if you want the paper to be thicker and stronger.)

A frame mould (this can be professional or can be achieved by stretching some stockings over a bent rectangle coat hanger or the inside of a wooden canvas frame or even photo frame)

Starch (will help if you want to write on your finished paper as it makes it less porous for the ink)

Glue (to help bind the paper – not all how-tos use this)

A basin big enough to easily fit in your frame mould

Water

A blender

Food colouring

Optional extras such as flower petals from your garden or how about strand of glister thread or thin strips of metallic foil, even a few plant seeds?

Shred your paper into small pieces and make your frame if necessary. (see above)

Add paper and warm water to your blender and blend until you have a messy, sticky pulp and no recognisable paper particles are left. (usually under a minute)

Take your basin and cover the bottom in water, not too deep say 3 or 4 inches.

At this point you can stir in some glue and starch to the basin water if desired.  Also you can mix in your flower petals etc and add a few drops of food colouring to your pulp to stain your paper.

Use your frame mould to scoop up and gently spread out a thin layer of pulp.

Leave to dry

As it dries you may want to sponge out some excess water or one technique is to iron out the water from your dried paper layer.

Peel off mould – this whole process is messy and may take some time to master so don’t be disheartened.

Now as for the actual scrapbooking be inventive.  You could press and dry some flowers from your garden and glue them too your page.  Also why not stick in your seed packets and maybe even a few seeds?

Fill your page with photographs of your gardens progress and anecdotes for future reference.  If you are growing vegetables you could even add in some pictures of finished cooking ideas and write in some recipes. 

You can cut out pictures of birds, insects or animals that frequent your garden from old magazines or cards and maybe some gardening tools such as watering cans, spades, garden rakes and forks.

If you are feeling artistic why not use some leaves or petals as stencils, dabbing on some paint and leaving their outline?  Buy some floral craft paper to make frames for your floral photographs and there is a vast variety of flower and leaf ink stamps or paper cutters out there to add some more detail.

All in all enjoy your time in the great outdoors, the sun beating down and bronzing your shoulders.  Your children will love to give you a helping hand and you could teach them so much about propagating flowers and planting and growing your own organic food as well as more scientific aspects such as pollination and insect life.

The end result will hopefully be a blooming success, your own secret garden sanctuary ready to be appreciated or visited by barbequing family throngs and you will have step by step documented proof of your achievements and beautiful photographs of special moments in time.